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JACOBSON, Megan

Megan Jacobson grew up in Darwin and the far north coast of NSW but now lives in Sydney where she works in TV news production at the ABC. She has a degree in journalism and has worked as a question writer for TV game shows and as an in-house script story-liner and script editor for several Australian television dramas. Her short stories have been published in the Sydney Morning Herald, aired on ABC radio, and appeared in the UTS Writers Anthology. Yellow is her first novel.

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JAFFÉ, Meredith

Meredith Jaffé is a freelance writer who has recently joined the Guardian Australia as their book critic. Prior to that, she spent four years working at the online women’s magazine The Hoopla writing the weekly literary column The Bookshelf; sharing literary news, reviewing books and interviewing writers. Meredith has also been a member of the expert panel that selects the longlist for the Australian Book Industry Awards and chaired panels, presented workshops and interviewed fellow writers for various literary events, including the 2015 Sydney Writers’ Festival.
As a keen believer in the power of literacy, Meredith volunteers at The Footpath Library as the Ambassador Program Coordinator and runs their annual EPIC! writing competition for school children. Her first novel, The Fence, is being published by Pan Macmillan.www.meredithjaffe.com

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JANE, Emma

Emma Jane (previous name Emma Tom) works as a journalist and writes fiction at night. Her debut novel Deadset won the Commonwealth Writers’ Prize for Asia and the South Pacific for Best First Novel. It was followed by Babewatch, a collection of her columns and Evidence, her second novel which was published by Harper Collins. There’s Something About Mary, an unauthorised biography of Princess Mary was published by Pluto Press in 2005 and her non-fiction work about Bali was published by Pluto Press in 2006. Her latest work is a book about pregnancy and childbirth, entitled Attack of the 50 foot Hormones.www.emmatom.com.au

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JENKINS, Nicole

Nicole Jenkins is passionate about fashion and has been collecting and restoring clothes since she was a child. Her knowledge has been furthered through studies in costume design at Perth Technical College and the WA Academy of Performing Arts and roles in film, theatre and fashion. Her Melbourne boutique Circa Vintage, showcasing the best of 200 years of Australian fashion, opened in 2004. Her first book, Love Vintage, won an international Independent Publishers Book Award in 2010. Her newest book, Style is Eternal, was published by Melbourne University Press in December 2014. Nicole lives in inner-city Melbourne in an Art Deco home with her poet husband and two cats.Blog: circavintageclothing.com.auFacebook: CircaVintageClothingTwitter: @nicole_jenkinsInstagram: circa_vintagePinterest: nicoleajenkins

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JOBBINS, Sheridan

Google Sheridan Jobbins, and you could be forgiven for thinking there’s more than one of them: writer, producer, presenter, journalist, and, according to The Guardian (UK), “notorious Australian counter culture writer”. She is a woman robustly living many lives with an irreverent curiosity, tenacious energy, and a passionate commitment to The Adventure.
A third generation Australian filmmaker and screenwriter, she also has extensive script writing experience for international production companies including Disney, Warner Bros, Working Title, C4, Hopscotch and Ealing Studios. Early television credits include variously presenting, writing, producing, or directing Simon Townsend’s Wonder World! (Network 10), Good Morning Australia (Network 10), State of the Arts (ABC), Billboard (ABC), Just for the Record (Network 10), Beyond 2000 (ATN 7) and House of Fun (Network 10). From 1993 to 2000, she was a Director of Latent Image Productions in charge of development. In that time, the company produced the multi-award winning feature films, The Adventures of Priscilla Queen of the Desert, Frauds, Paws and Will Full. Since 2000 she has been writing full time with Director Stephan Elliott. Their produced credits include; Easy Virtue (Ealing Studios), and A Few Best Men (Icon). She was also the Guinness World Record holder as ‘The world’s youngest TV presenter of a regular TV programme’ for Cooking with Sheri (ATN 7) – a thoroughly useless credit – but fun to mention at parties.

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JOEL, Maggie

Maggie Joel was born in Hertfordshire, England and now lives and works in Sydney. Her short stories have been widely published in Southerly, Westerly, Island, Overland and Canberra Arts Review, and broadcast on ABC radio. Her bestselling novels are The Past and Other Lies, and The Second-Last Woman in England. Half the World in Winter is now available from Allen & Unwin.www.maggiejoel.comTwitter: @Maggie_Joel

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JOHNSON, Anna

Anna Johnson started her journalistic career with Stiletto magazine at the age of nineteen. She then went on to serve as Fine Arts editor at Interior Design magazine; art critic for the Sydney Morning Herald, Radio National and ABC TV; and freelance writer for publications including Vogue Australia, Vogue UK, Conde Nast Traveller, Vanity Fair, ELLE, Australian Style, Australian Art Collector, Good Weekend and The Australian. The Yummy Mummy Manifesto was published by Random House US in 2009 and Savvy Chic by HarperCollins in 2010.

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JOHNSON, Rebecca

Rebecca Johnson, a school science specialist teacher, has published over eighty books on Australian birds and animals. She received the Prime Minister’s Award for Excellence in Science Teaching in Primary Schools and the Peter Doherty Award for Excellence in Science Teaching. Rebecca has written more than sixty books for Steve Parish Publishing (now Pascal Press), selling over three million copies in total. Her series of fictional insect books with photographs received the Royal Zoological Society of NSW’s series award. She has written readers, junior fiction, and two successful series based on vets.www.rebeccajohnson.com.au

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What Dinosaur is This? Illustrated by Alessandro Baldanzi (Oxford University Press, 2015)

'Insect' series (Pascal Press) Commended: 2014 Certificate for a Children's Series

'Steve Parish Storybook Collection' (Pascal Press)

JOHNSTONE, Matthew

Matthew Johnstone worked for 13 years as an art and creative director in advertising where he created award winning work in Sydney, San Francisco and New York. I Had a Black Dog, his illustrated book on what it is to suffer depression, was published by Pan Macmillan in 2005 and has since become a commercial success in Australia and internationally. Pan Macmillan published the follow up, Living with a Black Dog, in 2008, Constable & Robinson then published in January 2009 after which the book went to #9 on the Sunday Times Bestseller List. Since then, The Alphabet of the Human Heart (co-written with life-long friend James Kerr), Quiet the Mind and Capturing Mindfulness have been published in Australia and internationally, with The Alphabet of the Human Heart debuting at #5 on the UK’s Sunday Times bestseller list, and his first children’s book, Harvey: the Boy Who Couldn’t Fart being published by Walker Books. His latest book, The Big Little Book of Resilience, has been published by Pan Macmillan in 2015, and Constable & Robinson in the UK.www.matthewjohnstone.com.auwww.ihadablackdog.comwww.alphaheart.com